The site is centered on a particular Cassirer and Cohen family and their descendants as they shaped their lives from the eighteenth century to this day. In the course of that it touches on over 7,000 related people with more than 1,200 surnames. Of course unless you happen to be one of these people, the thing of interest is likely to be the histories.

As with many other familes of Jewish origin the story of Cassirer and Cohen begins in Central Europe, in this case from a small area bounded by Schweinfurt, Dessau, Berlin, Schwientochlowitz, and Crakow. The Cassirer family (including Ernst Cassirer who's philosophy is a focus of increasing contemporary interest) became extremely prominent in Berlin prior to World War II. Whilst the Holocaust (Shoah) shattered the Cassirer family spreading its survivors across the world, Henry Cohen, by contrast, arrived in Australia involuntarily as a convict. It was not the disaster that at first it must have seemed. The Cohen family found bountiful opportunity in the new land, and subsequent generations rose to prominence in commerce and government.

This, then, is in essence a story of how the Nazi holocaust and earlier brutal British policies of transporting even minor transgressors to penal settlements confronted and uprooted two families. It is also the story of how they and their descendants responded and rebuilt their lives.

Using this site

The best place to start is the Overview, or for a particular person, the Family Tree. There is also a quite large Document Collection including 18th Century family trusts, photographs, convict records and much else. To find specific information either click search the site or the corresponding item at anytime in the left menu bar.

Contributing

This site is a "living document" in which corrections by readers are an essential means to improving accuracy or documenting more speculative observations. Consequently corrections to errors and deficiencies, additional facts, interesting accounts of the lives of any the people touched on here, or any relevant photos, documents or references to them are always appreciated. Site policy is not to make available addresses or other contact details. Any information about you will, at your request, be removed or corrected with information that you provide. The site editor is Jim Falk. You can contact me here.